Preserving Roasted Red Peppers

At the request of my Birkenstock-wearing gal-pal Katerina of Daily Unadventures in Food, I am posting my family’s method of preserving roasted peppers. We employ this method fully in September when local Ontario red peppers are in season but we have also done this when say, other peppers are on sale and one can roast, preserve and eat at a later date.

If you recall, my parents come from Florina, (northern) Greece and the denizens eats lots, I mean LOTS of peppers. Living in Canada means that we rely on imports to augment our short Canadian growing season and therefore, autumn preserving is that much more important.

Let me be blunt, I really could care less for the jarred red peppers. I too find them acidic or sometimes too briny.

I prefer roasted red peppers and you can enjoy them 365 days year. How? Freeze’em!

Preserving Roasted Red Peppers

Set your BBQ/grill to high. One can use the stove top but the smokiness of the peppers will be absent.

Char your peppers all around. If you’re charring large batches, place them in a large roasting pan to sit and sweat. If small batches, place the charred peppers in a plastic bag to sweat.

When the peppers have cooled, start packing them in zip lock bags with their charred skins still on them. This seems to protect the peppers from freezer burn.

Squeeze any air out of the zip-lock bags and seal.

Label your bags (hot, sweet) and the date they were frozen.

Arrange your peppers on a plate, salt them and pour very good extra virgin olive on them.

27 Comments for “Preserving Roasted Red Peppers”

Katerina

Birkenstock wearing, careful now or I am going to start taking shots at you too! With the skins on, eh? This was what I was wondering about. Interesting, it seems to me that since roasting them takes a bit of effort you may as well do a bunch at once whenever you are going to. Brilliant, truly. Although I did just order a 5lb box of blueberries, so I am not sure that I will have a lot of freezer space.

JennDZ - The Leftover Queen

This is so awesome! I just roasted red peppers tonight on the grill…why? Well I am trying my hand at the roasted red pepper dip again – this time for a family picnic and this time I promise I will add sun dried tomatoes! :)

Peter M

JJ

Thanks for the great tip! One consideration when buying peppers is to seek out organic peppers as unfortunately peppers typically have one of the highest concentrations of pesticides according to analysts at the not-for-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG) based on the results of nearly 51,000 tests for pesticides on produce collected by the U.S.D.A. and F.D.A. The site offers a list at http://www.foodnews.org/pdf/EWG_pesticide.pdf

Peter M

charlane

Dear Kalofagus,I am roasting red bwootiful peppers on my BQ with a far few over the hills to the bay of fundy (wolfville,nova scotia)thanks you for your perfect instructions pix and inspirationgreat name by the waylove char

Peter M

gin

Hello there. Way into December, but I have a hard time finding good roasted red peppers, and cannot eat the canned. I had done them once from Bon Apetite and loved them. I have them in oven now and was looking for freezing possibility. Glad I found you. Stay warm! Noreastern coming in a few hours! Upstate New Yorker

schllac

I like to cut them in half, remove seeds and coat with oil and roast in oven on cookie sheet skin side upe. When charred put in pot with lid to steam , skin and pack in small portion zip lock bags, this so I can give some to the kids when they come over and I don’t have to defrost a large batch. Been freezing them for years. I also freeze the green ones raw in a large bag and remove what I need and reseal, great for soups and things

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